


Baby A

by Arakano



Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-10-30 15:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10879524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arakano/pseuds/Arakano
Summary: Minkyung is, was Baby A.The letter because the newspapers cannot identify minors.A because no one else was involved in the incident, just her.





	1. Chapter 1

Minkyung is, was Baby A. 

The letter because the newspapers cannot identify minors. 

A because no one else was involved in the incident, just her.

* * *

Her parents did not tell her when she was five and came home crying from kindergarten after this one boy wanted to see her soulmate’s name but she couldn't show it to him because she didn't know where it was and could not find it so he said she must not have one.

“We'll tell you more when you're older, sweetie but you have a soulmate. Your father and I know that for sure.”

They exchange sad looks but just pat her on the head, give her a piece of candy and five year old Minkyung forgets about what meanie Mingyu said in the playground sandbox.

* * *

She lets a boy kiss her on the cheek in seventh grade and he sort of splatters his mouth all over. Jungkook runs off right after and all Minkyung wants to do is scrub all of him off her skin even though he's a nice boy.

She wished she knew more about her soulmate but not everyone is lucky enough to be born with a name, no matter what all the textbooks say because she does not have one and she, Kim Minkyung, is a person too.

A classmate looks at her funny when she says she wants to find out more about what her soulmate could be like.

Minkyung just shrugs it off the same way she shrugs off people who complain that she does too well at school.

* * *

Minkyung is sixteen and she finds the clippings in her parents’ closet, in a shoebox hidden way in the back.

She was just looking for some spare cash because Kyungwon and her kind of want to try out this new cafe and she may or may not have already spent all of her allowance on buying Kyungwon's birthday present because it was on sale (even though Kyungwon's birthday is not for three months) and she really should not ask for more money, would only be borrowing it and would definitely return it after she gets her next allowance.

A yard of floral-patterned cloth rolled up and tucked around the edges. Minkyung tugs it out of the biscuit tin. Maybe her mother had left some spare change in the bottom of what looks like sewing supplies but instead some old newspapers fall out.

They are clipped neatly together with a slightly rusty paperclip that leaves a brown powder on her fingers and the paper as she pulls it away for a closer look.

Baby A, the newspapers say, born on the 29th of July, was the only victim of the first known case of deliberate harm with regards to soul marks. A small picture of a baby, identity hidden behind a black bar across their eyes, wrapped in a floral patterned cloth that Minkyung literally just pulled out of the box.

The nurse involved was jailed for three months but this case set the precedent for soul mark-related sentencing, she reads.

Minkyung folds the cloth into a neat square and puts it back into the box, hands shaking.

She does not meet Kyungwon and does not go to the cafe even though Kyungwon calls her seven times.

* * *

Minkyung is eighteen and combing the internet for research on soul marks because it is getting harder and harder to pretend that hers is somewhere that really cannot see the light especially since she is thinking of going further with this kind of cute upperclassman. She thinks Kyungwon might also be getting suspicious if she really paid attention but Kyungwon is Kyungwon and Kyungwon has never even mentioned anything about soul mates ever that even Minkyung who hates the subject is starting to get curious.

Then she sees it, some article about a girl in China born in 98 who does not have one. It was not removed, was not hidden, the doctors just did not find one when the baby was born and never thought to mention it.

The existence of this girl is enough for Minkyung to make something up. She could say that it is somewhere inside, that the doctors said it was there. 

Not that a one night stand would care, but Minkyung does.

* * *

Minkyung has always wanted to believe in soulmates.

There is just something so cute and so sweet about the idea that two people really do belong to each other in such a strong way that the universe decided to mark them in the same spot.

Except of course that some asshole of a nurse had decided to burn hers off when she was a baby so Minkyung knows she at least has one but will never know if she has the right one.

Never.

She does not even really have a spot to go off of since the mark was burned off when she was a baby and honestly she cannot really tell for sure which patch of skin that would have been. There is a tiny crinkle on her hip but also one on her foot where she stepped on something sharp in middle school so really nothing is certain and a billion people have soul marks on their hips anyway, there is nothing special about that.

So Minkyung believes in soulmates. 

She believes in soulmates so much it hurts.

* * *

The universe is mean, Minkyung decides, when she hears over the grapevine that a sophomore placed into a junior dance class - her junior dance class.

What makes things worse is that she is told that the new member of their dance class is going to be that Chinese student without the soul mark, which of course means both that Minkyung is actually going to get to know her because of the class and that all the guys on campus are going to try to sleep with her because of the lack of mark.

She dreads the Monday the class starts because god damn she does not need even more distracted random guys just ‘sitting in’ on this class.

It turns out that Zhou Jieqiong is magnetic even without people knowing that she has no soul mark because the girl is a bundle of energy and smiles and flaming dance moves and holy hell who made that face this perfect?!

Then the first boy slides her his number and Minkyung watches as the shades shutter close behind Zhou Jieqiong’s eyes though she takes it with a small polite smile. 

She invites her out to the bar that night, just the two of them sitting in a small booth tucked away in a corner under the watchful and slightly disapproving eye of Bartender Im Nayoung who occasionally sends them water instead of shots which Minkyung would normally appreciate but really not today.

Today she is determined to drink her sorrows away with the only person in the universe who might sort of get it.

“To being Baby A,” Minkyung raises her glass.

Jieqiong snorts but raises hers as well, “Being Baby A.”

Kyungwon picks them both up later and shuttles them home, not after giving them a quick earful about at least giving her notice and letting them know how lucky they were that she had actually finished recording and had cellphone reception.

Minkyung just giggles at her until she sighs and gives up.

* * *

Jieqiong is a fun, silly, clingy kid. She is unafraid to be her crazy unabashed self and Minkyung likes that about her.

It is a shame that most of the female population at the college loves to hate her because the guys will not stop trying to get with her, mostly just for a guilt-free lay, Minkyung imagines, since sleeping with someone who has your best friend's name on them gets awkward really fast.

What frustrates Minkyung about Jieqiong is how she will not stop giving people chances. It is funny how she has never heard so many excuses for not knowing where their soul mark is before going out to clubs and bars with Jieqiong but it just makes her angry whenever Jieqiong just lets them do this to her, lets them string her along before realizing that all they really want is sex before they settle down with their real soulmates.

It is the fifth breakup in as many months and even the bartender is starting to get concerned again. Minkyung knows the bill has been smaller than it should be, or maybe that they have been slipped more water than vodka.

At least this time Jieqiong has said no to that one boy who dared come up to the table, instead of flirtatiously winking at Minkyung and disappearing off onto the dance floor.

That does leave her, however, with a quiet sad Jieqiong who does nothing much else besides take shots and stare quietly off into the distance.

“How do you not do it?” Jieqiong asks finally, drunk and with the slightest tinge of desperation in her voice, “How do you not go out and just try and ask and see if anyone’s soulmate is you?”

Minkyung stays quiet, nurses another shot and lets Jieqiong continue.

She cannot say  _ because I've seen what they do to you. _

“Do you still believe in soulmates?” Jieqiong’s voice is a soft plea.

Minkyung reads the crumbling heart in front of her, feels pieces of her own fall to the floor, shakes her head.

“No,” she lies, “I don't believe in soulmates.”

Jieqiong leans over and kisses her but Minkyung does nothing besides taste the alcohol on her lips when Jieqiong pulls away. 

She lets the younger girl cry herself to sleep on her shoulder until the bartender comes over to chase them out and then Minkyung calls Kyungwon to pick her up. 

* * *

Minkyung groans from the couch, stirs after Kyungwon placed her there from picking her up at fricking four in the morning having collapsed at her usual bar. Kyungwon sometimes accompanies her but she had a piece to finish for her recital which was not going to write itself. And besides, yet another person broke up with Jieqiong yesterday so it was not like Minkyung had no company there.

She knows they have been hanging out a lot lately, chalks it up to them being in the same class though the depths of her stomach flutter just the same as when Minkyung was dating that one random upperclassman in freshman year.

Kyungwon gets up from her laptop and heads over to the kitchen for water before her thoughts can go any further.

“Do you believe that everyone has soulmates, Kyungwon? Do you think everyone is going to find their soulmate?” Minkyung’s voice is soft and small and anyone would put it down to the massive hangover that Minkyung must be having right now but Kyungwon knows better. Besides, they both know Zhou Jieqiong, the girl without a soul mark, so Minkyung could be asking this question for any one of a million possible reasons but the answer can only really be no. 

She shoves a glass of water into Minkyung’s hand, makes sure to splash just a little of it onto her arm to elicit a squeal and a pout.

“Drink up and you'll feel better. We've got class in half an hour.”

She turns back to the kitchen to find a snack for Minkyung who most assuredly has not yet had breakfast.

“What am I going to do without you,” she hears Minkyung say between gulps of water.

Kyungwon shrugs and sticks her head into the fridge in search of eggs.

Minkyung does not pursue the subject of soulmates any further though Kyungwon can still hears the ‘no’ she knows she does not want to say from earlier rattling around inside her head.

Because although she knows Minkyung wants her to say no, Kyungwon does believe in soulmates, does believe that everyone has a soulmate, and even naively believes that everyone will find theirs, everyone even Kim Minkyung, Baby A.

They have never spoken about it but Kyungwon knows because Minkyung has a tiny shiny mark on her hip.

Right where Kyungwon has her name on hers.


	2. On the Lower Frequencies, I Speak

Kyungwon is just about done packing to go home for the Lunar New Year when there is a knock. She throws another top into her bag, kicks it to one side and then shuffles over to the door, peers through the peephole.

“Oh hey,” she says to Jieqiong, “what’s up?”

“Is Minkyung in?”

Kyungwon shakes her head, “Ah, she went home this morning. You missed her by a few hours.”

The younger girl looks sufficiently crestfallen and vaguely kicked-puppy-like that Kyungwon feels the urge to delay her own return to Kongie and ask.

“Did you need her for something?”

Jieqiong shakes her head, chews on her lower lip, “I thought we were getting lunch but it’s ok. Don’t worry about it.”

Kyungwon really does want to see Kongie (and the rest of her family, she supposes) as soon as possible but she eats alone often enough to know that it’s not for everyone.

“Would I work?”

“Work?”

Kyungwon shrugs, “I’m hungry too. Do you want to grab lunch with me?”

Jieqiong eyes her warily.

Kyungwon sticks out her tongue, “We’re splitting this. I’m not going to pay for you. I’m not that nice.”

Jieqiong snorts and Kyungwon can see why Minkyung likes her already.

* * *

They sit at a small table at the back of a tiny Chinese food place. Kyungwon does not question what Jieqiong has ordered, just shovels dumplings almost too hot to eat into her mouth, enjoys the flavors that explode on her tongue.

“Hey,” Jieqiong says, “Kyungwon, right?”

Kyungwon nods, takes a sip of the tea, “uh huh.”

Jieqiong laughs as Kyungwon swallows, “You’re really enjoying the food.”

Kyungwon nods vigorously, “It’s good.”

Jieqiong smiles wryly, “We usually have some of these at home for the Lunar New Year. If you think these are good, wait till you come to Shanghai.”

Kyungwon’s eyes widen, “They’re even better in Shanghai?!”

“Are you kidding me?”

Kyungwon puts her hands up in surrender, “I’ve never been - wouldn’t know!”

“Where are you from,” Jieqiong asks, leans a little closer onto the table, “isn’t there food there that is better than it is here?”

Kyungwon nods, “The food in Gwangju is amazing. And so much cheaper. Seoul is a rip-off.”

“What’s better in Gwangju?”

Kyungwon sits up straight, levels Jieqiong with an extremely serious gaze.

“Everything.”

Jieqiong giggles at the look on her face.

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

“Not possible.”

“Ok, fine. The Chinese food in Seoul is probably better. But the Korean food in Gwangju is tons better than it is in Seoul.”

Jieqiong clearly does not believe her and Kyungwon does not know what comes over her.

“Do you want to come and see?”

“M-Me?”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess it is kinda weird, huh.”

Kyungwon shrugs, scratches the back of her neck a little nervously. That was weird, wasn’t it. She barely knows knows Jieqiong - their interactions have always been mediated by Minkyung and frankly limited to Kyungwon picking them up from the same bar.

Inviting her home over the Lunar New Year is definitely not a normal thing to do. But she’s already said it and Kang Kyungwon does not go back on her word. And it really would not be bad to have someone else around.

Kyungwon is very unprepared for Jieqiong to beam at her, “I’d love to!”

* * *

Kongie is basically done licking her face off when Kyungwon leaves Jieqiong to unpack in her room. Clearly she had not thought this through because they do not have a guest room and they would have to share Kyungwon’s room, embarrassing middle school sheets and all.

“Who is this,” her mother asks after Kyungwon comes downstairs to greet her father who had just gotten off of work. He pauses briefly by the doorway but just nods at her then heads to his room.

“Friend from school,” Kyungwon mumbles, “she’s from China so she doesn’t have a place to go to for the Lunar New Year.”

She entirely neglects to mention that earlier today is the first time they have actually properly spoken to each other.

Her mother frowns lightly, “We’re going to your grandparents’ tomorrow.”

“She can stay here,” Kyungwon says, “it’s fine, she can take care of herself. I’ll show her the instant noodles.”

Her mother purses her lips, “No one’s going to stay at our house alone, especially on the Lunar New Year. She’ll come with us. I’ll just let your grandmother know to expect your friend. You should go upstairs and call her down. Dinner’s almost ready”

Kyungwon nods, scoots back upstairs to find Jieqiong splayed out on the floor in the middle of the room.

“Uh,” she says.

Jieqiong scrambles to her feet, “O-Oh, sorry.”

“DInner’s ready, you should come downstairs. What were you doing?”

“Just looking at your ceiling,” Jieqiong says.

* * *

Kyungwon supposes that she should be somewhat aware of this by now but seeing how Zhou Jieqiong makes the people around her comfortable with her is kind of impressive.

Already her younger brother is sitting for longer than usual at the table, her younger sister saying nothing about her choice to go to Seoul, and her mother has served Jieqiong seconds. Even her father has allowed Jieqiong to pour him a drink.

(Kyungwon supposes that she did just invite Jieqiong to come to her house for the Lunar New Year after spending what must have been at most two hours in her presence so she is most definitely not one to talk.)

As it is, Jieqiong is sprawled on a spare mattress that her mother dug out from the storeroom, wearing an oversized T-shirt and red bunny pajama pants, texting on her phone with a hand and patting Kongie with the other when Kyungwon enters her room after a shower.

“Hey,” she says.

Jieqiong turns the full force of her smile at her and Kyungwon has a brief moment where she wonders what life would be if she were this happy a person in general.

Kyungwon nods at her.

“Feel free to turn the lights off whenever,” Jieqiong says, “I’m good.”

“Ah,” Kyungwon says, sits down on her bed, “You sure you don’t want the bed?”

Jieqiong looks up from her phone, puts it down, levels her with a serious gaze, “Nope. I’m already intruding into your room. Besides, this mattress is comfy. I dig it. And the sheets are cute.”

Kyungwon looks at the Pororo sheets. She does not even know why they have Pororo sheets when Pororo was not a part of her childhood.

“Pororo, right?”

Kyungwon nods.

“Thanks, by the way,” Jieqiong says, “thanks for inviting me and well, actually letting me come here.”

Kyungwon raises her eyebrows.

“Well,” Jieqiong looks away, fiddles with her fingers, threads one hand further into Kongie’s fur, “I kinda, well, didn’t think that you’d actually invite me over.”

“Over?”

“Like actually take me here. I thought you’d ditch me at the train station or something.”

“Why’d I- I mean, I invited you. I didn’t think you’d say yes.”

Kyungwon is genuinely confused. (Also slightly hurt, both at the insinuation and at the fact that Kongie is not leaping to her but is contentedly enjoying the scratches, ungrateful brat.)

Jieqiong smiles, shrugs, “Minkyung-unnie speaks highly of you. And I really wanted to see Kongie.”

The puppy in question stretches. Jieqiong laughs. Kyungwon scratches the back of her neck.

Minkyung mentioned Kongie to Jieqiong?

* * *

Kyungwon waves goodbye to Jieqiong at Seoul Station, turns around and nearly gets a heart attack.

Minkyung is right behind her, pouting.

“W-What,” Kyungwon says, grips tightly onto her suitcase when Minkyung tries to tug it out of her hands.

“You. Invited. Jieqiong. Home.”

Each word is punctuated by a jab to her shoulder with a finger. Kyungwon winces at the fourth poke.

“Well, it was kind of a very spur of the moment thing and I-”

“You’ve never invited me. You don’t even know her. She’s _my_ friend,” Minkyung’s pout gets even more well-defined.

My friend? That was a line kids used in elementary school and she would say as much but Minkyung can be savage at the drop of a hat and she would really much rather not be savaged this early in the day.

Kyungwon snorts.

Minkyung stares at her with widened eyes, “Did you just snort at me, Kang Kyungwon?”

Kyungwon sticks her tongue out, starts striding off towards their exit. Minkyung might be a single centimetre taller but Kyungwon has longer legs.

“Hey!”

Kyungwon laughs.

* * *

The door opens, or rather, Minkyung bashes on it until Kyungwon gets up from her desk and opens it.

“She’s here for you,” Minkyung throws her hands up in the air, “I should have never told her about your dog. It’s not even fair. I have Pobi. I don’t get why I’m being replaced for you.”

Jieqiong sticks her tongue out from behind Minkyung, gets herself lightly whacked on the top of her head for her troubles.

Kyungwon sniggers.

Jieqiong laughs and that has Kyungwon grinning. It’s one thing for Minkyung to look happy when she enters the room, it is another to have someone else genuinely enjoy her company.

Minkyung shoves her hard with her shoulder. Kyungwon whacks her back and Jieqiong giggles.

Kyungwon thinks she could get used to this.

* * *

The end of the week rolls around and it is three thirty in the morning - the hour where Kyungwon tends to do her best work.

Her phone buzzes, which is surprising considering how little service she tends to get in the recording studio.

_Can you come pick us up?_

_The usual place?_

_We are at the police station._

_...I’ll be right there._

* * *

“So,” Kyungwon says quietly, pushes Minkyung and Jieqiong each a glass of water as they sit as far away from each other as it is possible at the small dining table, “either of you want to explain what happened?”

“She punched someone.”

“They called her names.”

“We don’t punch people. We’re adults.”

“He was asking for it.”

“People ask for things all the time.”

“It was different and you know it.”

“We still don’t hit people. You’re lucky he decided not to sue.”

“Well, he’s lucky his friend stopped me from breaking his nose.”

“Minkyung.”

“I’m still your unnie. Address me properly.”

“Then behave like one.”

“You know what, I don’t get you. This is the one thing I still don’t get. Why do you just sit there and let them do these things to you?”

Minkyung slams her glass down onto the table, “Why? Why don’t you get mad at them? Why do you let them sit there behind their stupid drinks and call you stupid names and you just let them and you know that’s what people say and yet you don’t-You know what, I don’t-”

“Because they’re not wrong.”

“What do you mean they’re not wrong,” Minkyung hisses. Kyungwon shrinks away from the table. This is the first time she has seen Minkyung get this worked up over something.

“What do you mean they’re not wrong when they’re just whispering about getting into your pants, calling you easy, saying that you’ll just sleep with anyone?”

“But I am, right?”

Minkyung freezes as Jieqiong’s grip tightens on her own glass, “aren’t I? Look at the average person, average girl. They have a name somewhere on their body. Maybe they find someone who has the same name even if they know it’s not them so they can tell themselves that-but I can’t and I don’t and-”

“It’s not the same.”

“It is,” Jieqiong hisses, her voice dropping to a plea, “can’t you see it, Minkyung, it is because this is all I _can_ do. I can’t just-I’m not like you, Minkyung. I don’t have anyone.”

Her voice drops to a strangled sob, “ _I don’t._ ”

Kyungwon wants to say that everyone does but the words stick in her throat. Instead she slides her chair over, gathers the small pieces of Jieqiong in her arms and lets her shake silently into her shoulder.

Minkyung’s eyes are ablaze as she stands up abruptly from her chair and it clatters to the floor.


End file.
